Heneker – a Pioneering family from Kent to South Australia

Spending some time checking out family history blogs online, and especially blogs relating to adding “sources” to your blog gave me the thought that so many of us are from the same area’s. Well that is, our ancestors were. I came across a blog where the writer’s family lived in an area in Cornwall at the same time that my family also lived there! This was my paternal great grandmother. Which then got me to thinking, I wonder if they knew each other?  Many of these towns were mere villages, surely the children may have gone to school together, or at least met in church, the parent’s may have even been related by marriages, if only distantly. I have often thought of this in regard to my ancestors who emigrated to Australia, and the places they went to,  which at the time were very small, almost non existent townships. And today are still very small in population. So back in 1839 for instance when they arrived here in South Australia, and then travelled to remote outback area’s of the state, what would be the chances that they would not have known each other? Very small I should think. So it just brings me back to the old adage “it’s a small world”. The world has shrunk in many ways due to the internet, and social media in general. But in many ways, it must have been a small world in the 1800 and 1900’s, if only because people lived worked and died in their own small district. Emigration would have meant some may have left the country together with neighbours or family they were close to, or some may have emigrated at a later date, perhaps after hearing stories from their kinfolk or friends who had made the adventurous but dangerous trip. Maybe they thought “If they did it so can we”!! My mind often rambles along these lines, maybe it is a sense of romance, history and longing all rolled into one. How many of us wish we could travel back in time, even just as an observer to watch our ancestors toil and live in our hostile environment. From the comfort of our airconditioned homes and cars we probably feel we could cope and manage like they did. But could we? Anyway, I love the idea of being interconnected with so many people down through the generations. How much we owe them for their pioneering spirits, their toil, their heartbreak and their loneliness.